Berkeley Fluids Seminar
University of California, Berkeley
Bring your lunch and enjoy learning about fluids!
Monday, March 13, 2017
3110 Etcheverry Hall, 12:00-13:00
Data-Driven Analysis for Future Water Infrastructure
Abstract: In the time of big data, it is still difficult to make informed decisions to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and invest in “the infrastructure of tomorrow” that is resilient to climate change and sea-level rise. A data dilemma is preventing data from supporting decision making. On the one hand, data are being overwhelmingly produced by sensor networks, high-resolution remote sensing, and large-scale parallel computing, but we still lack tools to translate data into information and insights that can inform decision making. On the other hand, data resolution and coverage may not meet decision makers’ needs. My research strategy is fusing mechanistic modeling and data-driven analysis to address these issues. I performed a series of numerical simulations for San Francisco Bay to examine various shoreline scenarios and a series of short and long-term sea-level variability. A new Model Order Reduction technique -- Dynamic Mode Decomposition was applied to interpret the complicated tidal dynamics in space and time. An inverse method was developed to quantify the interaction of coastal infrastructure and storm events. A sensitivity analysis was performed to reveal the spatial interdependence of coastal protection infrastructure around San Francisco Bay. At last, I will introduce my recent big-data work, which is aiming to address the resolution and coverage issue of the urban flooding datasets.
Bio: Ruo-Qian (Roger) Wang is a Postdoctoral Scholar at Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. He has conducted Postdoctoral research at Mechanical Engineering and Tata Center for Research and Technology at MIT. He has obtained Ph.D. in Environmental Fluid Mechanics at MIT, a Master degree from Singapore-Stanford Partnership (Nanyang Technological University /Stanford University), and a Bachelor degree from Beihang University, China. He was also a research engineer in Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Center before coming to MIT. His Ph.D. work was about jets and plumes, and his current research focuses on sea-level rise, infrastructure resilience, and urban flooding.
Acknowledgments
Prof. Graham Fleming (Vice Chancellor for Research, UC Berkeley)
Prof. Eliot Quataert on behalf of The Theoretical Astrophysics Center and the Astronomy Department (UC Berkeley)
Prof. Philip S. Marcus on behalf of the Mechanical Engineering Department (UC Berkeley)
Prof. Michael Manga (Earth and Planetary Science, UC Berkeley)
Prof. Evan Variano (Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley)